Central American families have big stake in U.S. immigration proposal

Seattle Times ^ | January 23, 2004 | Karen Brooks

[sarcasm]

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — On the surface, Jose Felix Rivera of Honduras doesn't seem so different from millions of his Mexican counterparts who are working undocumented in the United States.

He lives in the shadows while he works in Texas. He sends money to his wife, children and parents.

"We've got families to feed, too. That's all we're trying to do, just like anybody else," Rivera said as he stood on the banks of the Rio Grande in Nuevo Laredo, ready to cross illegally to a job in Houston.

But Rivera, his home country and the 1.5 million undocumented Central Americans in the United States have much higher stakes in a guest-worker program being pushed by President Bush than the estimated 4.5 million Mexican workers who are in the spotlight of renewed immigration talks, observers said.

"It will be exponentially bigger in Central America," said Larry Burns, executive director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington think tank. "Its economy is far less sophisticated than the Mexican economy, and conditions in those countries are such that the social safety net is almost nonexistent."

Central Americans, who make up 22 percent of the undocumented work force in the United States, often are left out of the public discussion on immigration law. Yet these workers, legal and illegal, send home some $5.5 billion a year that accounts for nearly 30 percent of the economy in some Central American countries.

By comparison, the $14 billion that Mexican workers send home accounts for 1 percent of that country's gross domestic product, said Roberto Suro, executive director of the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.

"These are economies that are totally dependent on the remittance flow from the U.S., which comes from both legal and undocumented migrants here," Suro said. "Maintaining the migration relationship with the U.S. — unless something else came along to replace it — is critical to the economic and political stability of those countries."

Political strife, natural disasters and dependence on U.S. aid that was halted later combined to cripple the economies of Central American countries since the 1980s.

On a personal level, the stories of suffering of undocumented Mexican workers in the United States are magnified for Central Americans, whose desperation some say is greater than that of Mexicans.

It starts with the trip from their home countries to the U.S.-Mexico border, well within reach of Mexican citizens but a dangerous and faraway destination for people such as Rivera, who are illegal the moment they cross Mexico's border with Guatemala and subject to thieves and corrupt immigration officials, considerably higher smuggling fees and weeks-long treks north.

"It was a long journey," said Rivera, who traveled more than a month to reach Nuevo Laredo. "We came on the train, and we came on foot, getting tired, getting cold, getting hungry."

Once in the United States, these workers can pay a hefty price for supporting their families back home.

In October, federal agents who raided more than 60 Wal-Mart stores detained hundreds of undocumented immigrants, several of them Central Americans, who were working on cleaning crews for low wages.

A Honduran woman was arrested in Harlingen, Texas, a few months earlier and accused of orchestrating a massive smuggling scheme that resulted in the deaths of 19 immigrants — many from Central America — from suffocation in the back of a semi-trailer truck on its way to Houston.

Aching to improve their conditions in the United States, many Central Americans who recently gathered outside a migrant shelter in Nuevo Laredo expressed hope that a guest-worker program would include them.

Several wondered what effect such a program would have on immigration law in Mexico.

For Omar Figueroa of Honduras, the burning question is how, short of an expensive plane ticket, he would even reach a legal job in the United States — much less visit home — without having to outrun robbers and Mexican immigration officials.

Experts say the interest Central Americans have in being included in any guest-worker program is well-warranted.

"Central American undocumented workers do have a lot at stake," said Walter Ewing, a research associate with the Immigration Policy Center in New York. "If Central American undocumented workers were suddenly rounded up and sent back, they'd be sent to an economy that has absolutely no possibility of jobs for them. You'd be increasing the pressures to migrate to America."

[dennisw]

Right ...... Not just Mexico, we are the flop house for Central America too. This article omits all the Colombians, Peruvians, Ecuadorans and other Latinos scamming their way into the United States, who also plan to get on the amnesty gravy train.

[sarcasm]

SALVADORAN GANG SAID TO SPAN THE NATION CALIFORNIA POLICE SAY MS-13 IS RESPONSIBLE FOR RAPES AND KILLINGS

[dennisw]

Low IQ thugs, scum of the earth

[sarcasm]

Have you seen THIS?

[dennisw]

Thanks... I heard about this but not in so much detail. A real tragedy for this Russian and his family. For him to get killed by this Latino gang. I wonder what south of the border cesspit spawned them?

We really need a prison island where we can drop kick these criminals instead of skinning the taxpayers at the rate of $40,000/year to house feed and clothe them.

[sarcasm]

The Wild Chicanos, hmmm.

[dennisw]

Chicanos gone out wilding. More foreign born useless eaters (bums) for the taxpayers of NYC to subsidize.

[sarcasm]

But the lettuce growers in Brooklyn would collapse without their labor.

[sarcasm]

Innocent lives feel the effects of gangs

[sheik yerbouty]

Make a deal with Russia, reopen the prisons in Siberia, rehire the guards, and dump them there. Let the ACLU deal with Moscow instead of the US. Make sure the areas outside the prison camps have some large polar bears too.

[B4Ranch]

When you and I spend $10.00 in a local store that ten dollars gets rotated through at least seven different businesses or individuals hands before it stops the rotation at the US Treasury. The local store owner might use it as wages, or to buy replenishment stock, to pay any number of fees or local taxes, buy gasoline or food at a local store, pay a bank loan. You name it. The $10.00 then will be loaned out again for someone to locally buy a car or home, or to a local road or home contractor, and on the cycle goes. When the $10.00 goes to Mexico or India, it does not rotate in our economy, it does in Mexico's or India's though. That builds Mexico's or India's economy NOT ours. The amount of money that is rotating in the daily cycle is one thing that controls our interest rates. Take the 12 billion dollars that is going to Mexico and assume it only passes through corporate hands being taxed at 15% not the 35% personal rate that you and I pay. The loss to our economy in taxes alone from a single 12B transfer is 18 million dollars. When that 12B passes thru seven different corporations the loss to America would be multiplied by the average profit gain of each corporation. There is no proper way that I know of to calculate the exact loss of business profits due to that cash NOT flowing through other American corporate accounts. (I'm sure someone does) I would estimate overall average business profits should be somewhere between 4% and 10% so there's another $48 to $120 million lost by the wayside in unearned income and unpaid taxes to our government. Then start adding all the billions that continue going to other nations and the bill keeps getting higher and higher in American citizen job losses!

[B4Ranch]

"We really need a prison island where we can drop kick these criminals instead of skinning the taxpayers at the rate of $40,000/year to house feed and clothe them. "

My Gawd Man, where's your compassion? /scarcasm/

[kittymyrib]

If the feds can snoop into every citizen's bank account to see that not more than $10,000 can be deposited without reporting it, then it would seem our feckless government could outlaw ALL money transfers to Mexico and Central America. Instead, Bank of America brags about its fast money transfers to Mexico. No dough being shipped out, no reason to come to the good old USA.
Having all these parasites on our body politic, drawing billions of tax dollars out of the system for medical treatment, welfare and their children's education, while they ship 90% of their money to foreign countries just shows us why they view Uncle Sap with such disdain.

[gubamyster]

ping

[RiflemanSharpe]

"We've got families to feed, too. That's all we're trying to do, just like anybody else," Rivera said as he stood on the banks of the Rio Grande in Nuevo Laredo, ready to cross illegally to a job in Houston.


The problem is that to feed you family you are taking food out of the mouths Americas.

[KantianBurke]

"It was a long journey," said Rivera, who traveled more than a month to reach Nuevo Laredo. "We came on the train, and we came on foot, getting tired, getting cold, getting hungry."

Hey douchebag! How about you show that much effort in reforming your own friggin country so it isn't a turd world country? No? Oh yeah that's right. Easier to just head north than actually take responsibility ofr your own nation.

[dennisw]

Problem is he has zero "right" to illegally enter the sovereign nation of the United States. Tough luck if he was born in a 3rd world hole. If we admitted every 3rd worlder who wanted in, we would easily get a billion immigrants, even if they were banned from any kind of government welfare.

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

man, the flags hanging from rearview mirrors around here reflect every country in CA and, increasingly, SA. Two neighbors within shouting distance of my front door fly CA flags from their homes. The American flags are all flown by elderly whites. Gonna get REAL crazy in the coming years. Already is crazy, he said understating the obvious.

[Old Professer]

Trying to stop illegal immigration is like trying to patch a leaky pressure cooker with chewing gum while it is still on the boiler.